


Now There's Always Time

by Tea__Bee



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Almost smut, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, POV Mollymauk Tealeaf, Sharing a Bed, caleb has a nightmare, molly has a sexy dream, molly has been back a few months, soft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-06-27 14:57:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19793254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tea__Bee/pseuds/Tea__Bee
Summary: Molly is woken by Caleb having a nightmareTitle from Always by PATD





	1. All Was Golden

**Author's Note:**

> This was honestly meant to end up smuttier but I lost momentum.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from When the Day Met the Night by Panic! at the Disco

_ Caleb's long, calloused fingers traced a line up the inside of Molly's thigh, making the tiefling gasp. He reached out and tangled his fingers in long red hair and pulled him down for a kiss, their lips sliding together, and he felt Caleb grasp at his hip, almost hard enough to bruise. He bucked up, seeking friction, and Caleb responded in kind, grinding against him with a groan, "oh, Molly."  _

"Please,  _ nein,  _ please, please, not again." 

Molly jolted awake with a gasp as he heard Caleb's voice next to him instead of above him. He rubbed a hand over his face and whined under his breath. He had to stop having these dreams. It had been inconvenient and hard to hide before, but in the months since Molly had come back, Caleb had taken to watching over him and was always nearby. They'd begun sharing rooms after Molly had found Caleb asleep on the floor of the hallway outside his room twice, as if he'd been guarding him. It made Molly yearn for him more to have him so close, and the soft reassuring glances and brushes of skin, almost like Caleb was still convincing himself Molly was real, made him crave for more. 

"No, not again," Caleb mumbled.

Molly looked at him, still asleep a little over a foot away. His face was scrunched up like he was in pain and his hands were balled at his side. He was breathing hard, and sweat was dripping down his temple. It was clear he was having a nightmare. Molly bit his lip with worry and reached out. "Caleb?" He touched the man's shoulder. He felt him tense for a moment before he shuddered and relaxed a fraction. "Oh," he sighed. "Oh, darling." He squeezed his eyes shut and worked up a bit of courage. Scooting closer, he ran his hand up and down Caleb's arm and watched as he stopped shaking and his face relaxed. "Okay, here goes nothing, then." He wrapped his arm around his waist, his hand settling just under Caleb's heart. He took a chance and pressed a light kiss to the back of his shoulder. He felt him relax fully then and smiled to himself a bit. 

Then Caleb's heartbeat sped up. "Molly?" 

_ Shit. _ "Y-yes?" There was no going back now.

"Um," he swallowed hard and Molly could almost hear the gears in his head turning. "Wh- you are, ah…"

"Cuddling you a bit, yeah. You, uh, you were having a nightmare, I think, and when I… when I reached out, and the more I was touching you, I guess, the more you calmed down. I'm sorry, I didn't really know what else to do, I didn't want to wake you up, you don't get enough sleep as it is, I-" 

"Molly, you're babbling," Caleb chuckled lightly. "I do not think I have ever heard you babble like that. I was, ah. I was not angry, I… I was going to say you are, um. Well," he paused. He took a breath and shifted his leg back against Molly, clueing him in on what he'd been trying to say.

Molly was still hard from his dream.

He felt his heart drop and he pulled back, his face burning with shame. "Shit, Caleb, I'm sorry, I… I was having, I mean, obviously I was having a good dream," he laughed with embarrassment. "But you clearly weren't and that took priority." He cleared his throat and changed the subject. "What, uh… What was your nightmare about, is it something I can help with?"

Caleb sighed and turned so he was on his back, still not facing Molly completely, but at least he could see his face a bit. "You, actually."

_ "Me?"  _ He let out an incredulous gasp. "Wh-what about me?"  _ What about me is a nightmare to you? _ He thought, his hopes for their recent closeness dashed a bit.

Caleb's head whipped toward him and he reached out and took Molly's hand, "No! No, not like that, you… of course not. It was more, ah, the lack of you? I suppose? You were… you were gone, again, and I could not get you back this time." 

"Oh, Caleb." Molly took a risk again and rested his hand on Caleb's cheek. 

"I was… I was too far away. When he… when you…" he took a steadying breath. "I could not do anything then, and I could not do anything in my dream, you were taken from me  _ again."  _

"I'm here, though. I'm right here, and I'm not going anywhere, no one is taking me away from you this time." Molly smoothed his thumb over Caleb's stubble.

Caleb's eyes searched his before he spoke again. "Molly, I-I cannot let you go again."

Molly frowned. "You-"

Caleb pulled him close and kissed him firmly. Molly couldn't think for a second, but quickly regained his senses and wrapped Caleb up in his arms, coiled his tail around his thigh, and kissed him back. Caleb tangled his fingers in Molly's hair and pressed their foreheads together, taking a breath. He placed a soft, tender kiss on Molly's lips before looking in his eyes. "I do not expect anything, but I needed you to know, I-I could not… if something happened again, I could not bear it if you did not know. Not again." 

"How long?" Molly asked softly.

"I-I suppose, it was there all along, but I didn't really know until I was too far gone to turn around. I am sorry, I should have told you before, but I thought we would have time, and then-"

"Then we didn't." Molly laughed quietly, afraid to break the softness of the moment. "Gods, we've been dancing around each other for nothing." He leaned forward and poured his feelings into another kiss, everything he'd wished he could tell Caleb. Everything he  _ could _ tell him now. 

Caleb drew him impossibly closer with a whimper and Molly realized with a groan that he was hard, too. 

Molly nipped at Caleb's bottom lip and pulled back. "It's only fair I share my dream with you now, too, right?"


	2. Come a Little Nearer Baby

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from Heal Over by KT Tunstall

Molly swung his leg over Caleb, going from laying next to him one second to straddling him, hovering over his with a teasing grin, the next. He leaned down to kiss him, softer this time, but with the added pressure of his hard cock pressing through their sleep pants as a contrast. "After all, my dream was so pleasant, and it only seems fair to share now?" He murmured, sounding unsure that this was truly happening, that Caleb actually felt this way, after Molly had been pining for so long.

Caleb whined at the contrasting sensations, at the realization he could have everything he'd wanted since Molly had shown up, a burst of color in his lonely gray life. "Yes, that, ah-" he lost his train of thought as Molly ground his hips in a circle at 'yes'. "That seems only f-fair, oh,  _ Molly."  _ He gasped when Molly bit down, just on the edge of breaking the skin, right above his collarbone where his shirt exposed his neck.

Molly grinned into the sensitive skin of Caleb's neck and laved his tongue over the mark, soothing the sting. He nuzzled there a moment, lazily moving his hips, taking in the feeling of Caleb's fingers pressing into the bare skin above his sleep pants, the soft panting sounds they both made that blended together in the night. "Mmm, darling, how far do you want to take this? You just had a nightmare after all, I don't want to take advantage."

Caleb shivered at the tenderness in the word 'darling', at Molly taking care to check on him, "I'm not- I-I don't, I'm not sure?" He leaned up to kiss Molly, tangling his hand in his hair. "I want this, I want  _ you,  _ but you are right, I'm not sure I'm in the right space for too much right now." 

Molly pressed their foreheads together, his tail swishing contentedly against the sheets. "That's fine, we can do anything you're up for, or nothing at all if that's what you want. I'm just- I'm just happy to be with you, to be able to kiss you," he punctuated this with a small kiss on Caleb's nose. "This is already so much more than I thought I'd ever have. I thought…" He trailed off with a sigh. "I thought I'd just have to keep it to myself, love you from a distance, I never…" Caleb was staring up at him, wide eyed, and it took him a moment to realize why, to realize what he'd said. "Oh. Um… yeah, so," he swallowed. Curse his nervous babbling. "That."

"Y-you…" Caleb struggled to find words. "Did you say… Love?" He whispered.

He could brush it off. Pretend it was a slip of the tongue. Push it back down like he'd done a hundred times before. But Caleb hadn't pulled away, and Molly thought the look in his eyes was hope. He took a deep breath. "Yeah. Yeah, I did."

"Me? You l-love… you love  _ me?" _ Caleb's voice was barely audible, but his eyes were still shiny with what Molly took as hope. It could have been fear, though, and that made Molly quiet when he responded.

"I do. I guess it's maybe a little early to say it, we only just started, really… we haven't even talked about whether we're even actually going to give this a real go, for all I know all you wanted was sex, and I… oh shit, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make this heavy, I-" Molly pulled back, no longer on top of Caleb but sitting on his heels next to his knees, head in his hands and tail twitching with nerves as he spoke, fast and increasingly unsure of himself with every word. Caleb sat up, on his knees on the mattress in front of him, and pulled his hands gently away from his face so he could look at him. 

"Molly, you're babbling again." Caleb kissed his fingers. 

Molly couldn't look him in the eyes, focused instead on the place where Caleb had kissed his hand. 

"When I said I want you, Molly, I meant  _ all _ of you. I want to hold your hand, I want to share your bed, I want your laughter, your voice singing songs I don't know, your smile, your colors, and I-I want your love." Caleb smiled as Molly finally looked up at him again, and there were tears at the corners of his eyes. "I want your love, because it matches mine. I love you, of-of course I do, how could I not want everything you're willing to give me?" The concerned look slid off of Molly's face and he melted into Caleb's embrace. Caleb wrapped him up and held him tight, murmuring comforting sounds into his hair. "Were you really that worried,  _ liebling? _ You are always so confident." 

"I can be as confident as I want when things don't matter." Molly said, the sound muffled. "This…" he looked up, "this matters too much to risk, I thought maybe I was moving too fast, that I was too much to handle, that you wouldn't want… me, that way, or that seriously? People don't always… stick around."

"I'm not going anywhere. I'm here, as long as you'll have me." Caleb leaned in until he was almost close enough to kiss him, and waited for Molly to close the gap, wanting him to be able to set a boundary if he felt the need in his apparently fragile state. It seemed he didn't need to worry, though, because Molly sighed with relief and met him in a soft kiss, simmering with renewed heat, both of them on their knees and pulling the other closer.

Molly slipped his fingers under the loose material of Caleb's sleep shirt, then hesitated, still not wanting to take advantage. "Caleb, I-"

Caleb hummed happily, pulling back from the kiss for a moment to shuck his shirt all the way off and feel Molly's bare chest against his own. "You can touch me anywhere you like. I will let you know if it is too much for right now,  _ ja? _ And you will let me know the same? We'll have plenty of time to explore further other nights, when we are not so tired, and haven't gone through so much."

Molly swept his thumbs across the skin where Caleb's ribs met the smooth plane of his stomach. He wrapped his tail around Caleb in a steadying embrace and pulled them both down gently to lay facing each other in bed again and nipped at his bottom lip, sliding their tongues together and deepening the kiss. They stayed there, rutting lazily against each other, trading breaths and small, wandering touches until they fell asleep in the soft light of the sunrise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah this was meant to be the smut but uuuhhhhh this happened instead so I guess I'll try to do a smut chapter another time!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed it, please leave a comment I live for feedback!
> 
> Bee


End file.
